I believe this completely.Packchem91 said:
^I fully agree with the idea of respecting the police and using all the right buzzwords you use. But.....I also didn't grow up being exposed to some jackass power hungry guys who roughed up my dad, or my brother, or my friends just because he could, like many who grow up in predominantly poor black, crime-ridden neighborhoods do.
How many times does a person have to see something like that, before a big distrust of the police starts?
I think that is one of the major things we are dealing with here. A guy who has already been arrested 4-5 times, perhaps roughed up, maybe outstanding warrants...probably isn't going to respond the same way as you or i
And yes....some of those stories of being mistreated could be exaggerated, mis-remembered, could have extenuating circumstances, etc.... but I think most people, given all we see, KNOW, that sometimes cops go way too far. And that doesn't mean just when someone ends up shot. If you get accosted and slammed to the ground, or thrown against a wall or punched, or ____ because you say something back....those things build a layer of distrust.
Now...as for your comments about the media's role -- 100% agree. "It's just business", and talking about some methhead white guy in a beater getting shot doesn't sell like a young black man (regardless of his background), getting shot.
Talking to a couple of my employees who are black, and some folks in my church who are -- all of whom I would trust, and the stories they have told about interactions....lets just say I get why they don't like the police.
I'll tell you something that you may not believe - I have had my fair share of negative interactions with the police as well. I live in a small town and when you like to run your mouth, such as I did, it tends to cause the police to become more interested in you. In saying that I was never charged with anything outside of a speeding ticket, but it got to the point where i was getting pulled over on a regular basis and pulled out of my vehicle. It was absolute harassment and you'll never convince me otherwise. I'm not going to say that it was racist, even though the majority of the cops that pulled me over were black.
One of the interactions that i won't ever forget will be getting pulled out of the car, handcuffed, and sat on the sidewalk with one cop watching me while another two ripped everything out of my car during a search. After about 25-30 minutes on the sidewalk a state trooper pulled up to assist and then all of a sudden they were done, didn't find anything, and told me to have a nice day after taking the handcuffs off.
I told my story above to finish my point...I was a loudmouth kid and rubbed some cop the wrong way. I shouldn't or ran my mouth off to the cop and the cops shouldn't of harassed me like they did. We are both wrong here. I wonder if its the same with the black population. Areas of higher black population tend to have higher crime so the cops are there more often. This means that it increases the chances of having a negative interaction with the police compared to other areas. If the cops were focused more on areas that were predominately white would we here the same stories out of white communities instead? I would argue that the answer to that would be yes